Lightroom 8.3 unbearably slow on 2019 iMac
Howdy everyone, *another* post on how slow the new lightroom update is running.
I'll try to be as detailed as possible in the hope it can bring about a positive outcome.
I've just bought a brand new 2019 27" 5k 8-core i9 iMac with 40GB RAM and 2TB SSD, and am running Mojave with the latest Lightroom Classic v8.3.1. I've upgraded from a 2014 Macbook pro, with 16GB ram running El Capitan with Lightroom Classic v7.5, which is what I'm comparing the performance with.
Generally, LR on my new iMac is obviously slower, whether it is browsing through images in either library or develop modules, actively changing between modules and of course when doing virtually any editing of images. When editing, it's especially noticeable when using local adjustment brushes, spot-removal, and even something as simple as undoing (ctrl-z) something. But these annoying/inconvenient delays pale in comparison when compared to the delays when toggling the 'before-and-after' function to see how my edits are going (hello pinwheel of death for literally three seconds each time I toggle this function - making it absolutely unusable), and, even worse still, when I import photos.
I haven't transferred my whole image library over to my new computer because I work professionally as a photographer and run a tight ship on my images - when I've finished a project for a client, I export everything onto my backup drives and out of lightroom. So my new computer is a fresh canvas, with literally no collections in LR to be slowing things down. This is the first batch of images I've tried to import, and they're not even from my high-res work camera but one of my 'play' cameras - an old Canon 7d.
So I tried to import 259 images from the 7d, which are roughly 18mb each, straight to my internal ssd hd. So no wild file sizes here, it's a 10-year-old camera. It took ages, like noticeably ages, but only while building the standard-sized previews. I thought it had frozen, so I cancelled the procedure, ejected the card and tried again. Once again, it hadn't finished by the time I got back from getting a coffee. I left it this time, to make sure it was still working, and sure enough, it was slowly progressing. Once it was finished, I plugged the same card in the same reader with the same import settings into my old macbook, to do a test.
With the five-year-old 2014 macbook pro, the times are as follows when importing 259 raw files:
Copy and import - 02:12
Convert to DNG - 02:20
Render preview times - 00:34
Total import time - 05:07 minutes
On the new iMac:
Copy and import - 02:10 (essentially the same time)
Convert to DNG - 01:43 (half a minute quicker, nice)
Render preview times - 10:34 (literally 10 minutes slower, a lifetime. Entire civilisations have risen and fallen quicker than these previews rendered)
Total import time - 14:29 minutes
This is unbelievable/unacceptable. This surely can only be an issue with the new lightroom? My new iMac's specs are great, far beyond what my old macbook pro is running, but the same images are unworkable on my new computer. I don't want to hear excuses about me running a 5k display and how much processing power that must need. Here's a youtube video of something importing a comparable amount of significantly bigger raw files, and doing so in a much quicker fashion: 2019 Apple iMac i5 3.7Ghz Adobe Lightroom Classic CC Review - YouTube. That youtuber also seems to be able to flick through his images quicker than I can. Likewise, I don't want to hear if I've tried turning off/on the graphics processor - I have, and it shouldn't (and doesn't for me) make any difference with a computer like this.
Is there any way to install the older lightroom and test/use that? Otherwise I, seemingly like many others, will be cancelling my Adobe membership to go elsewhere.
Well, that's where I'm at. I hope there's a trick, but I've tried a bunch of things (different preview sizes/settings, cache sizes etc). Pretty ready to walk on Adobe.
Anyone else in the same boat?
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